Washington’s Mill Creek Little League Powers to Northwest Region Championship, Secures Spot in 2008 Little League Baseball World Series

Washington’s Mill Creek Little League Powers to Northwest Region Championship, Secures Spot in 2008 Little League Baseball World Series

By Little League Communications Division

August 9, 2008

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. (Aug. 9, 2008) – Pitcher Jason Todd picked up a complete-game victory, scattering five hits and striking out 10, in a 10-1 Mill Creek (Wash.) Little League victory over Murrayhill Little League from Beaverton, Ore., in the Northwest Region Championship game Saturday night at Al Houghton Stadium in San Bernardino, Calif.

Todd’s performance on the mound capped a dominant tournament for the Mill Creek Little League pitchers, who collectively walked just one batter en route to the team posting a 6-0 record in regional play. Equally impressive was the offense, which outscored its six opponents, 80-8.

In this game, both teams tallied runs early, but Mill Creek Little League began to pull away in the fourth inning, compliments of Derrick Mahlum’s three-run home run. With a 6-1 lead in the top of the sixth inning, Mill Creek Little League put the game away, as Alec Kisena hit a towering grand slam to conclude the scoring.

Murrayhill Little League was looking for a return trip to the Little League Baseball World Series, having won the Northwest Region Championship in 2007. On this night, the lone offensive highlight for the Oregon State Champions was a solo home run by Connor Shaw in the second inning.

Teams from the state of Washington have participated in the Little League Baseball World Series six times, most recently in 2004, when a team from Redmond qualified. In 1982, National Little League from Kirkland, Wash., made the state’s only championship game appearance, winning the World Series, 6-0, over Pu-Tzu Town Little League, from Chinese Taipei.

The Little League Baseball World Series for 11-12-year-olds will be played in Williamsport, Aug. 15-24. Sixteen teams from around the world will take part.

The World Series championship game can be seen live on ABC at 3:30 p.m., on Sunday, Aug. 24. ABC also will televise the International Championship Game on Saturday, Aug. 23 at 12:30 p.m., followed by the United States championship at 3 p.m.

The 2008 World Series will be the second operated under the eight-year television contract agreement with ESPN/ABC. Five games will be televised on ABC. This will be the third year that all of the World Series games will be televised in high definition. For the seventh year since the tournament expanded from eight to 16 teams in 2001, every team will have games on national television. All 32 games of the World Series will be televised again this year. Fifteen World Series games will be televised on ESPN and 11 will be televised on ESPN2.

In addition, the ESPN family of networks is carrying all eight of the U.S. Regional Championship finals in the Little League Baseball division. The U.S. regional finals have been televised by ESPN and ESPN2 every year since 1997.

Little League International also formed a unique relationship with the New England Sports Network (NESN) and Madison Square Garden Network (MSG) to televise early-round games in the New England and Mid-Atlantic regional tournaments in Bristol, Conn.

The next berth in the Little League Baseball World Series is expected to be decided Sunday at 10 p.m. on ESPN2, when the U.S. West Region Tournament in San Bernardino, Calif., is due to end.

The last U.S. region final will be televised live on Monday at 8 p.m. on ESPN, when the Mid-Atlantic Region Championship is to be decided.